South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

SF City Council

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Feb 2, 2021

l3wis 2Comments

Council Informational Meeting • 4 PM

Presentations on the LINK and Great Plains Zoo. I find it interesting we have NOT been given a reason why the prior director was booted and what that entailed. I will personally say if she is reading this and wants to reach out, please email me, I would like your side of the story.

Regular Meeting • 6 PM

Item #6, Approval of Contracts

Sub Item #8, Sioux Falls Arts Council, An agreement to create and execute programming in order to foster a more vibrant arts community in Sioux Falls. $35K+, while I support this I wonder why 1) this amount has not changed in years, so you wonder what it is based on and 2) why does this come from the Planning Department budget? Shouldn’t it come out of the Entertainment Tax Fund?

Sub Item #12-13, $247K towards after school programs. While I’m cool with my taxdollars funding these programs I question why the city coffers are paying for this out of the Parks Budget? Shouldn’t this be a county or school district expense?

Sub Item #14, Entertainment facility expense, $33K for ‘Parking Lot C’ Where the heck is this parking lot?

Sub Item #21, Greenway and Trail Improvements; Existing Bike Trail Reconstruction; To award a bid, $503k. Wow, never thought I would see a worthwhile expense on something we all can use for FREE!! Still waiting for a city ordinance that charges us to use the bike trail while church groups volunteer to maintain it.

Sub Item #29, Multi-Media COVID 19 Education Campaign Media Campaign to educate and inform citizens of Sioux Falls related to the COVID-19 Vaccine. Fresh Produce (Sioux Falls Ad Agency) $100K. I first want to say that FP is a great agency and I know some of the owners and employees and this is NOT about the work that they do. This is about how we are spending the money. We should be spending it on a public vaccination site, like Falls Community Health which we already fund.

Item #7, Surplus of property, Fleet Asphalt Paver, $0 book value, Operating, 2009 model, Online Auction. I find it odd that piece of property that still works and is being sold has NO book value. If you go online and do a quick google search you will see that depending on the model it books at around $25-100K. So why a ZERO listing? Can I give you my guess? Because there have been rumors for years that insider deals go on with city auctioned items and someone will snatch this up at basement bargain prices. My guess is this item has already been sold . . . to those in the know, if you know what I mean. Wink. Wink.

Item #41, 2nd Reading, AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, GRANTING A NONEXCLUSIVE NATURAL GAS FRANCHISE TO NORTHWESTERN CORPORATION, DOING BUSINESS AS NORTHWESTERN ENERGY, A DELAWARE CORPORATION, TO FURNISH AND SELL NATURAL GAS TO THE CITY AND ITS INHABITANTS. While I have listened to the pros and cons on this issue in the 1st reading, I would probably vote against it. While competition is good, MidAmerican has done a good job of providing this service to Sioux Falls. Why complicate something that would put our safety at risk burying competing pipes next to each other? Natural gas is very affordable, and I don’t see making that market competitive will save consumers that much. It would literally be pennies on your monthly bill. Sure it may be a monopoly in SF, but the competitor has the same deal going on in other communities, so the argument in moot. I expect this item to get pretty heated Tuesday night. My staff DaCola recommendation is denial 🙂

Item #45, A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS RECEIVING THE MUNICIPAL BAND TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATION. This of course would give management control of the band to the Pavilion. While I take no issue with that, one has to question if the Pavilion will ask for a bigger subsidy from the city because of it? In other words, while we will save the band, did we save any coin? Probably not, in fact I think it will cost us more. It seems the TenHaken administration is always trying to fix things that are not broken to make itself look like it is innovative. I have gone to the same barber for around 20 years, because she is NOT broken. I even asked her last year, “Anne, do I have a bald spot on the back of my head? Because when I do public input at city council it looks likes that. And friends have told me that.” She responded, “No, just a little thin. Tell your friends they are full of sh!t”

Item #46, A MOTION PROVIDING ADVICE AND CONSENT TO THE APPOINTMENT OF MATT MCAREAVEY AS FIRE CHIEF OF SIOUX FALLS FIRE RESCUE. I will first say that Matt has credentials, and have no doubt he can fulfill the duties. But once again the powers of be promoted someone internally without even attempting a national search to bring in new blood or hiring someone who lives in the community. I guess Matt lives in rural Renner.

Developers Development Mayor TenHaken Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls TIFs

UPDATE: How can NON-Elected City Employees Recommend Approval of a $94 million dollar TIF?

l3wis 1Comments

I’ve complained in the past about the ludicrous nature of city employees in the planning department recommending approval of projects. But a $94 million dollar TIF? Get Out!

Just look at the Planning Meeting agenda for Wednesday;

Notice that on the actual agenda page there is NO recommendation from staff, but if you look at the attached documents you get this, approval;

Situational factors are also evaluated in any TIF request with flexibility and discretion, and may include any factor important to elected and appointed officials. 
Staff recommends approval. 

I’m not sure who wrote the sentence above, but in my circles we call that poppycock, horse pucky or in Europe, Bullocks!

While I understand they have to evaluate re-zones and permits, what gives them any authority to simply recommend approval of a $94 million dollar tax rebate?

I have encouraged the city council in the past to either change the charter/ordinance or write a new one that doesn’t allow NON-ELECTED city employees in the Planning Department recommending approval. They should give the PROS and CONS of every agenda item and let the Commission and Council decide.

Oh, and another City Hall mole tells me that the City Attorney even dipped his toes in the water sending city councilors a recommendation of approval. The City Attorney! If this is true, WOW! Not sure what a JAG officer with little knowledge of 1st Amendment rights can contribute to a TIF argument . . . oh that’s right, he has the Mayor’s boot polish on his tongue, my bad, I forgot. He did learn one thing in the military, a good spit shine.

What makes it even more egregious in this case is that they have NO basis that this is a good plan, in fact all they do is quote state law;

Tax Increment Financing is an economic development financing tool established by Chapter 11-9 of South Dakota Codified Law. TIF’s allow property tax dollars from a specific geographic area to be applied towards eligible public and private capital improvements and to stimulate and develop the general economic welfare and prosperity of the state by utilizing the anticipated increase in property tax— known as positive increment— generated from a project to reimburse for improvements determined as eligible by the municipal governing body. Improvements are typically financed and paid off in future years through the tax increment proceeds. 

They also make this assumption without backing it up with data;

Project Details The property included in the district boundaries are part of Foundation Park, which is a development park owned by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation. In an effort to promote development of the property, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation has requested Tax Increment Financing to offset the costs associated with preparing the property for development and to stimulate and develop the general economic welfare and prosperity of the state. The request is substantiated by economic development that will be generated through growth in taxes by a development site of this scale.

As I have mentioned in the past they have never done a comprehensive study about TIFs to prove that they ‘stimulate and develop the general economic welfare and prosperity of the state’ and they never will because it will only prove what TIFs really are; corporate welfare and little else.

UPDATE: The simple video below from our friends up North explains quite simply how TIFs raise taxes on the rest of us while the receiver of the TIF gets a nice little treasure chest (It gets juicy at about 5:10) H/T MLZ.

Notice the mention of a ‘TIF Account’ this of course will be held in a private bank. I’m not sure which bank would be used, but it is highly likely that the city and development foundation will use the one the city uses for it’s accounts now, you can guess which one that is.

Also notice the mention of ‘Bonds’. The city and state almost exclusively use one bonding company. You see where this money trail is going . . .

She also does a fine job of explaining how the original intent of TIFs was to clean up slums but now has been changed. She doesn’t flat out call it a scam, but the half-way sarcastic grin and partial eye-roll gives it away.

The best part is when she essentially explains how the rest of us will have to make up for this $94 million dollar TIF by increasing our taxes on over a billion dollars in valuation. OUCH!

She also talks about the ‘buddy system’ that is alive and well in Sioux Falls between the developers, the planning department, the mayor’s office and the city council which why I have argued for years is ripe with corruption. Remember the city holding onto land for a certain developer, tax free for over a decade at Phillips to the Falls then giving a TIF to boot for luxury apartments?

The video shockingly ends with my argument about using mini-TIFs for everyone in the city.

Oh, and I love the ending where she pretty much blows a hole in ‘urban renewal’ stating what it really is, higher taxes for the rest of us.

I know a lot of people think I blow a lot of smoke about TIF’s but this video is from a leading policy agency in a neighboring state.

Developers Development Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls TIFs

Breaking Down proposed Sioux Falls TIF 23

l3wis 5Comments

During public input today at the Sioux Falls City Council informational meeting (FF: 1:39:00) I touched on the morality and ethics of tax incentives and rebates for citizens and local contractors and business owners opposed to International Companies. What I did not touch on is what this TIF is really about, a select group of investors making a buttload of money while using the city as collateral.

Before reading anymore, I encourage you to first watch the presentation of TIF 23 than consider what I think I saw;

• The real beneficiary of the TIF would be the Development Foundation, not the businesses coming in or the citizens of the city.

• Basically the DF is using the TIF as a slush fund (for about 15 years) to make the land more appealing by spending the money on upgrades and infrastructure instead of putting it back into the existing city infrastructure for street improvements, public education or judicial/public safety expenses. In other words they are robbing from the other governmental entities (that benefit us all with their services) to build an industrial park we never needed to begin with (seriously folks, it was much better as farmland).

• Do you think this slush fund will just sit in a metal box down at the executive offices of the Foundation? Nope, now we bring in the banksters and bond salesmen to get their cut while they use the city (taxpayers) as collateral if any of these deals fall thru.

I ask a simple question; If you had two choices as the Mayor and City Council where you could spend $94 million in tax incentives/rebates over the next 15 years? Would you . . .

• Spend it on upgrading existing infrastructure in our city which would improve neighborhoods, reduce crime, create much needed affordable housing, employ local contractors and enrich local small multi-housing property owners or would you . . .

• Spend it on building NEW infrastructure (that we will eventually have to maintain) that will house International and National businesses (which pay substandard wages and little in local taxes while shipping profits overseas) attracting more people to our city who will be looking for housing, public education and creating more social headaches.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have an issue with attracting good employers to our city, but why do we always have to dangle the TIF carrot? If our economy was truly strong in Sioux Falls (I think a certain sector of it is) why would we have to offer property tax breaks? If a business truly has a good business model, they should have no problem paying for land upgrades, infrastructure upgrades, living wages and 100 percent of their property taxes on day one. Isn’t that what Free Enterprise and Capitalism is founded on? Not to sound like Ayn Rand, but Cheese & Rice!

But like I said, TIF 23 isn’t about investing in any of these things it is clearly about a handful of bloodsuckers who want to scrape up the fat drippings from the bottom of the broiler pan while our council and city administration is either too blind, too dumb* or too paid off to see it.

*During the Q & A session Councilor Marshall Selberg (who was actually awake for a meeting for once) asked if he could build a Burger King out there. Remember, Marshall is NOT a self-employed piano teacher, he has worked in commercial real estate for a very long time. After asking his question of the DF director, Bob responded, “It’s an industrial park, you can’t build a Burger King out there.” Think about that the next time you hire Marsh as your realtor. Whopper’s are on me!!!!

Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Council Informational Meeting Agenda, Jan 26, 2021; Millions in infrastructure and tax rebate giveaways to Corporate America

l3wis 9Comments

UPDATE: The rumor swirling around is that this TIF could have a value of over $91 million+ and a certain bank with a certain councilor working at this bank wants to finance projects at Flopdation Park with the caveat that this TIF can be used as collateral. So guess who is on the hook if the Development Foundation defaults . . . you guessed it. I’m hearing that many of the councilors are very uncomfortable with the TIF and they may have the 5 votes to kill it and send it back to the drawing table. Of course this is all speculation until we hear more tomorrow, stay tuned, they are going to have to clean out Carnegie with skid steers after this meeting.

To say I was a little disgusted when reading the agenda of the meeting is an understatement. Of course I knew this was coming;

• TIF 23 – Foundation Park North Update by Bob Mundt, President, Sioux Falls Development Foundation; and Jeff Eckhoff, Director of Planning and Development Services (No supporting documents in SIRE)

• Marion Road Improvements at Foundation Park by Mark Cotter, Director of Public Works (there are supporting documents and maps in SIRE)

The State, County and City has already given millions towards Foundation Park in infrastructure, and we are set to give more with the road improvements. I can’t imagine if we spent the same amount of money on our core, fixing up the infrastructure we already own?

But that is the least of our problems. The city is proposing for the first time an open-ended TIF. While I am opposed to millions in tax rebates to even local developers, I am even more weary of international companies that pay little to no Federal taxes and make billions paying less than a living wage. But what makes this TIF even more egregious is that it will give the Development Foundation carte blanche to have an open ended TIF that can use for however long they want to. One of the reasons the docs are not yet posted on SIRE is because this will be the largest scam in property taxes in the history of our city. Large corporations will come into Foundation Park, pay little in property taxes, little in Federal income taxes, pay low wages and send all the profits straight out of town while us worker bees pick up the slack in higher property taxes and infrastructure costs.

In other words, for the hardworking folks in Sioux Falls like you and me, IT’S A BAD DEAL!

Anybody promoting this on Tuesday and tells you this is a good thing for our community is FULL OF SH!T!

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Mayor TenHaken’s ties to China

l3wis 8Comments

Last night at the Sioux Falls City Council regular (FF: 1:42:00) meeting a citizen brought up during public input the curious nature of Paul’s trip to China in November(?) 2019. Remember this was before Smithfield’s disastrous approach to keeping workers safe during Covid, and probably the reason why Covid spread so rapidly in Sioux Falls. Smithfield is owned by Communist Chinese investors that ship most of the product from our location to China. Think of it like the XL Keystone pipeline that would ship Canadian tar sands crude across our state to the Gulf Coast so it can be shipped to China.

Paul said this at the time of the trip;

“These relationships are critical first steps in establishing both trust and economic partnerships between our communities. One of our largest employers — Smithfield Foods — is owned by a Chinese parent company, and my office has had several other discussions with business development opportunities that have Chinese ownership ties. The Sioux Falls economy would strengthen via stronger cultural and business relations with key Chinese partners.”

If I was a guessing man, I can almost guarantee Paul met with Smithfield investors while in China. Remember how no one in his administration OR in Noem’s wanted to hold Smithfield accountable? How ironic that Noem just called a couple of newly elected Senators ‘communists’ while she bowed to the real communists whose ignorance of safety procedures helped spread the virus rapidly thru our city and region and essentially cost lives while Noem and TenHaken blamed immigrants for lacking proper hygiene. They virtually did nothing to stop the impending doom at Smithfield and even the CDC drug their feet.

Sorry Paul, I have ZERO interest in doing business with the Communist Chinese who are actively using 5G technology (antennas made in China) to spy on us and their meat-packing stink-hole plants to destroy our environment with little fines or punishment and providing unsafe working conditions that helped spread Covid through our community. The Chinese don’t care about our community, and the feeling should be mutual. This is about lining their pockets and little else.

CITY HOUSING AND PLANNING OFFICE CONTINUES WHACK-A-MOLE APPROACH TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING

During the City Council Informational meeting yesterday, there were a couple of presentations;

The first was about how the city plans to rebuild Hayward Park with a private/public partnership. I guess Steve Hildebrand and Matt Paulson are in charge of the fundraising. During the presentation, councilor Soehl asked why concrete and pipes (for the proposed spray park) cost $1 million. I told him during my public input at the end of the meeting it is because the city normally pays 2 to 3 times more for contractor work then what private industry does.

The Planning/Housing department did a presentation on how they plan to still build houses for a handful of families and sell them at a discounted price. In fact, Planning Director Eckhoff admitted something I have known for a long time, that contractors won’t do this work unless they can make some money. As I have known all along, this is has nothing to do with affordable housing, it has to do with certain developers and contractors making a buck on these Federal housing projects, this is a great program about it. While I understand they have to make a profit on these projects, I think they are and than some;


During public input, I told them about my idea of providing property tax rebates (small TIFs) to homeowners and small duplex and apartment owners in the core neighborhoods to fix up properties much faster for affordable housing. I told the city council it was time to invest in the ‘people’ of the city.

I ended my public input by scolding them about moving the regular council meeting to 6 PM, essentially shortening the informational and causing issues with the amount of time presentations can be done.

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